Bob Strauss

Staff Writer

Recent articles

Celebrity deaths

Leonard Nimoy, whose half-alien “Star Trek” character Mr. Spock was a pop culture icon, died in his Bel Air home Friday from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The actor, director, writer, poet, photographer and recording artist was 83.“I loved him like a brother,” said William Shatnerin a statement following news of Nimoy’s death. “We will all miss his humor, his talent, and his capacity to love.”Shatner...

Movies & TV

Margot Robbie comes off as the quintessential (Australian) girl next door. Pretty but approachable, smart yet unpretentious, good sense of humor and serious when she needs to be — it’s a totally charming, disarming package.Be warned, though. She can steal your watch in two seconds. Maybe just one.“It’s always fun to learn a new skill set,” the 24-year-old actress says offhandedly about the pickpocketing tricks she learned for her latest movie,...

Academy Awards

We tried to make it suspenseful, suggesting Richard Linklater could win Best Director and “Boyhood” Best Picture and Michael Keaton Best Actor for “Birdman” at the 2015 Academy Awards. But all the signs pointed toward those awards going to Alejandro G. Inarritu and his “Birdman” movie, and “The Theory of Everything’s” Eddie Redmayne.And so they did. As did Best Actress Julianne Moore, Supporting Actor J.K. Simmons,...

Academy Awards

The weighted ballot for Best Picture that was instituted when the Academy Awards opened the category to more than five nominees a few years ago was supposed to dilute passion voting.If this year’s results are any indication at this point, though, voting members went for what they love in a big way. So far, both “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Whiplash,” movies, deeply loved by those who are into them, lead the field with four and three Oscars,...

Academy Awards

I don’t know how many back-to-back Cinematography Oscar winners there are but who in history could possibly have achieved the one-two punch Emmanuel Lubezki just did for “Birdman” and, last year, “Gravity”?Both were marvels of sustained-shot ingenuity, “Gravity’s” in a digitally created outer space and “Birdman’s” through the backstage warrens and tortured minds of a Broadway production (much of it shot on...

Academy Awards

Halfway (hopefully) through the 87th Academy Awards, and the closest thing to an upset has been in the highly campaigned category of Sound Mixing.Just kidding with that last bit there. But it was mildly surprising that “Whiplash” took that statuette when smart money — if that’s what you can call a bet on Sound Mixing — was on “American Sniper.”That may bode ill for “Sniper’s” slim chances at upsets in sexier...

Academy Awards

The 87th Academy Awards should go pretty much according to plan. “Still Alice’s” Julianne Moore for Best Actress, “Whiplash’s” J.K. Simmons for Best Supporting Actor and “Boyhood’s” Patricia Arquette for Best Supporting Actress — these nominees would have to join ISIS to lose.But don’t tune out before the end. Things remain pretty suspenseful in the three top categories of Best Actor, Director and...

Academy Awards

While the Academy Awards haven’t been that terrible in doling out their Foreign Language Film Oscars recently, they haven’t exactly been inspired.Poland’s “Ida,” Oscar 2015’s choice, remedies that. Square-framed, black-and-white and otherwise austere, Pawel Pawlikowski’s transcendent tragedy told a challenging story rich in historical, political, spiritual and psychological implications that made no concessions to viewers who...

Academy Awards

“Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” my favorite movie of 2014, is the front-runner to win Best Picture at the 87th Annual Academy Awards. My top film hasn’t won that Oscar since “Unforgiven” 22 years ago.I was naive back then, and excited that the Hollywood establishment had finally exhibited...